In the first 52 years of the North Cobb football program, the Warriors had finished in the top four of the final state rankings only twice before.

On Tuesday, North Cobb made it three times.

After going 11-3 and advancing to the Class AAAAAA state semifinals, the Warriors finished at No. 4 in the final Georgia Sports Writers Association poll.

The ranking equaled the No. 4 ranking of the 1979 team and trailed only the 1959 squad, which finished No. 2 after advancing to the Class C state finals.

North Cobb coach Shane Queen said he felt like he had the makings of a really good football team heading into the 2012 season, but he admitted that reaching the state semifinals was a bit of a surprise.

“It’s amazing,” he said. “If I said we were (going to be a semifinal team before the year), I wouldn’t be telling the truth. We had 15 guys start for us this season that started on the JV team last year, but (having this kind of season) is something that you always shoot for.”

North Cobb finished as Cobb County’s highest-ranked team for 2012, but it wasn’t the only one.

Lassiter, which entered the Class AAAAAA playoffs as the No. 1 team in the state, was upset in the first round by Parkview and narrowly remained in the poll at No. 10. Only twice have the Trojans finished higher in the season-ending poll — No. 5 in 2011 and No. 9 in 2009.

Marietta and McEachern also received votes for the final Class AAAAAA rankings.

In Class AAAAA, Allatoona advanced to the state quarterfinals for the second straight season and finished at No. 6. Last year, the Buccaneers had their highest final ranking of their program’s short history, finishing No. 5 in Class AAA.

Kell, which fell to eventual state champion Gainesville in the second round of the playoffs, was ranked eighth, matching last season’s final rank. The only Longhorns squad to finish higher was the 2010 team at No. 5.

Despite going 11-1, and being ranked No. 7 in the final regular-season Class A poll, Walker fell out of the top 10. The Wolverines finished as the unranked team with the highest number of votes.

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